Starting Over
Faith and Redemption In America

When the holidays wind down and the summer blockbusters have all but been forgotten, it's nice to catch a few films that emphasize acting, direction, and story. In America is one of those small films that has all the ingredients of something monumental, even if it does resort to blatant emotional manipulation.

Written and directed by Irish-born Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father), In America is a semi-autobiographical account of his arrival in the United States with his wife and two daughters. The story is told from the point of view of 10 year-old Christy (Sarah Bolger), the oldest daughter, who sees her changing world and changing family through the eye of her video camera. The innocence of Christy's childlike wonder is tempered with the realities that have forced her to grow up a little too fast. The result is a narration that is at once both rich in hope and mired in pessimistic expectation.

Christy's family is still mourning the loss of her brother Frankie after the toddler fell down the stairs and died. Hoping for a new start, they move to America so her father can become an actor. Johnny's (Paddy Considine) inability to land an acting role has forced Sarah (Samantha Morton) to get a job at the local ice cream parlor so the family can have an income. Though they live in a run-down apartment building populated with junkies and assorted characters, the family makes their loft into a home. As the family gets used to life in America, the girls embrace its traditions. Going door to door on Halloween, Christy and Ariel (Emma Bolger) meet "the screaming man" in their building. Mateo (Djimon Hounsou) is frightening at first, but the girls draw the reclusive painter out of his solitude and into their family.

The story is a blend of fact and fiction. Not only is it loosely based on Sheridan's own experience, but it plays fast and loose with reality too. While clearly set in the 1980s, the radio station they listen to in the car plays a promo for "the greatest hits of the '70s, '80s & '90s." Likewise, the video camera Christy carries is too small and too advanced for that decade. Nevertheless, Sheridan's willingness to play fast and loose with reality only helps remind viewers that this is not a biography. If anything, it's an allegory.

The story is partially about the father's alienation from his own daughters by their displacement in a new country. While he fights to find work in an unsteady industry, he sacrifices the time he could be spending with his family. As a result, the girls and Sarah find a surrogate father figure in Mateo. Of course, this leads to a rather obvious confrontation, but the result is surprisingly honest and not at all what viewers might have expected.

Like many dramas, In America does tend to pull on the ol' heartstrings a little hard at times. Christy's cautious requests for her dead brother Frankie to interceed on behalf of the family are touching. The interaction between Ariel and the ailing Mateo are heartbreaking. On top of it all, for the last 20 minutes of the film, I couldn't help but feel that I was being emotionally blackmailed by the director. Forced to view the most trite and overused images of poignancy, I couldn't help but feel tears welling up inside. But knowing I was being manipulated drove me to cynicism rather than sentimentality.

Cynicism aside, the film included some noteworthy and amazing performances. Both Morton and Hounsou have been nominated for awards by the Academy Awards, and deservedly so. Nevertheless, the roles of Ariel and Christy (played by true-life sisters) are the heart of the film. Both of the girls are absolutely wonderful, and they light up the screen with their performances. Sarah, who plays Christy, is absolutely brilliant in a couple of scenes where her maturity comes through despite the fact she is only 11 years old. If she continues to take acting seriously, she could be a big name in another decade.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of In America is its simplicity. The story may be one of immigrants in America, but their story is no different than that of anyone else in the city they have chosen to call home. In America is not about the things that make Johnny, Sarah, and the girls different. Rather, it centers on those things that make us all the same: life, love, birth and death. We see in them what we are, and we feel for them because we have been through the same things. Whether something as simple as winning a child a toy or as monumental as a difficult pregnancy, the value of In America is that it tells our story.

MY RATING: 8 out of 10.

RATED: PG-13
RUN TIME: 103 min.